St Peters Still Dancing

They don't call it March Madness for nothing. Every Year, come tournament time, you'll get a couple of teams that will pull off huge upsets. You'll also get one or two teams that will make a magical run every so often. The 2022 Tournament has been no different. IN this years dance, there's only one top seed remaining, that being Kansas. The big story heading into the elite eight is the #15 seed, the St Peters Peacocks.

We've seen some great runs in the past. Villanova is the lowest seed to ever win a title, winning in 1983 as an eight seed. UMBC is the only sixteen seed to ever beat a one seed, when they beat Virginia a few years back. We had Florida Gulf Coast crashing the sweet sixteen, also as a fifteen seed. This is the furthest that a #15 seed has ever gotten in this dance.

But what St Peter's is doing is different. They finished the year 22-11, losing six games in conference and finishing second during the regular season in MAAC. But they got hot at the right time. They haven't lost a game since February 20th. Its now a ten game winning streak heading into their elite eight matchup with North Carolina.

Just to help put into perspective how amazing this run has become. There are 358 Division I schools that play Men's Basketball and could participate in this tournament. During the season, St Peter's ranked 273rd in free-throw percentage and 317th in 2-point field goal percentage. And in the tournament, they were 13 point underdogs against Purdue, who they just beat to advance to the Elite Eight.

This is nothing new for St Peters, playing the role of underdog. They've been doing it all tournament long and they are going to keep going with it now. Difference with this game, against North Carolina on Sunday, is that the Tar Heels are an eight seed. The lowest seed that the Peacocks have played all tournament. They are playing clutch defense and hitting clutch shots all tournament long. Nobody expected this and it really has been a great sight for fans to watch.

Will it keep going? How knows. But has it been fun to watch? Hell yes

They don't call this March Madness for nothing.

Sports And The Oscars

This Sunday marks the 94th Academy Awards, which is honoring the best of the best in the past year in films. Sports films have had nominations at the awards in the past. Even a few have walked away with the Golden Statue. So with that being said, here's the complete list of sports films that have been nominated and won an Oscar.

Creed (2015): Nominations (1) Best Supporting Actor (Sylvester Stallone)

Fozcatcher (2015): Nominations (5): Best Actor (Steve Carrell), Supporting Actor (Mark Ruffalo), Director (Bennett Miller), Original Screenplay, Makeup and Hairstyling

Moneyball (2011): Nominations (6): Best Picture, Actor (Brad Pitt), Supporting Actor (Jonah Hill), Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Sound Mixing

Real Steel (2011): Nominations (1) Best Visual Effects

Warrior (2011): Nominations (1) Best Supporting Actor (Nick Nolte)

The Fighter (2010): Wins (2): Best Supporting Actor (Christian Bale), Supporting Actress (Melissa Leo) — Nominations (5): Best Picture, Supporting Actress (Amy Adams), Director (David O. Russell), Editing, Original Screenplay

The Blind Side (2009): Wins (1): Best Actress (Sandra Bullock) — Nominations (1): Best Picture 

The Wrestler (2008): Nominations (2) Best Actor (Mickey Rourke) Best Supporting Actress (Marissa Tomei)

Million Dollar Baby (2004): Wins (4): Best Picture, Actress (Hilary Swank), Supporting Actor (Morgan Freeman), Director (Clint Eastwood) — Nominations (3): Best Actor (Clint Eastwood), Editing, Adapted Screenplay

Seabiscuit (2003): Nominations (7): Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Art Direction, Costume Design, Sound Mixing 

Ali (2001): Nominations (2): Best Actor (Will Smith) Best Supporting Actor (Jon Voight)

The Hurricanes (1999): Nominations (1) Best Actor (Denzel Washington)

Jerry McGuire (1996): Wins (1): Best Supporting Actor (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) — Nominations (4): Best Picture, Actor (Tom Cruise), Original Screenplay, Editing

Hoop Dreams (1994): Nominations (1) Best Editing

Field OF Dreams (1989): Nominations (3) Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Original Score

Bull Durham (1988): Nominations (1) Best Original Screenplay

The Color of Money (1986) Wins (1): Best Actor (Paul Newman) — Nominations (3): Best Supporting Actress (Mary Elizabeth Manstrantonio), Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction

Hoosiers (1986): Nominations (2) Original Score, best Supporting Actor (Dennis Hopper)

The Karate Kid Part II (1986): Nominations (1) Best Original Song Glory of Love

The Karate Kid (1984): Nominations (1) Best Supporting Actor (Pat Morita)

The Natural (1984): Nominations (4): Best Supporting Actress (Glenn Close), Cinematography, Art Direction, Original Score

Rocky III (1982): Nomination (1) Best Original Song Eye Of The Tiger

Chariots of Fire (1981): Wins (4): Best Picture, Original Screenplay, Costume Design, Original Score — Nominations (3): Best Supporting Actor (Ian Holm), Director (Hugh Hudson), Editing 

Raging Bull (1980): Wins (2): Best Actor (Robert De Niro), Editing — Nominations (6): Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Joe Pesci), Supporting Actress (Cathy Moriarty), Director (Martin Scorsese), Cinematography, Sound

Heaven Can Wait (1978): Wins (1): Best Art Direction — Nominations (8): Best Picture, Actor (Warren Beatty), Supporting Actor (Jack Warden), Supporting Actress (Dyan Cannon), Director (Warren Beatty and Buck Henry), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Original Score

Rocky (1976): Wins (3): Best Picture, Director (John G. Avildsen), Editing — Nominations (7): Best Actor (Sylvester Stallone), Actress (Talia Shire), Supporting Actor (Burgess Meredith), Supporting Actor (Burt Young), Original Screenplay (Sylvester Stallone), Sound, Original Song ("Gonna Fly Now")

The Longest Yard (1975): Nomination (1) Best Editing

Bang The Drum Slowly (1973): Nominations (1) Best Supporting Actor (Vincent Gardenia)

The Great White Hope (1970) Nominations (2) Best Actor (James Earl Jones) Best Actress (Jane Alexander)

This Supporting Life (1963): Nominations (2) Best Actor (Richard Harris) Best Actress (Rachel Roberts)

The Hustler (1961): Wins (2): Best Cinematography, Art Direction — Nominations (7): Best Picture, Actor (Paul Newman), Actress (Piper Laurie), Supporting Actor (Jackie Gleason), Supporting Actor (George C. Scott), Director (Robert Rossen), Adapted Screenplay

Pride of The Yankees (1942): Wins (1): Best Editing — Nominations (10): Best Picture, Actor (Gary Cooper), Actress (Teresa Wright), Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Art Direction, Sound, Special Effects, Original Score

The Champ (1931): Wins (2): Best Actor (Wallace Beery), Original Screenplay — Nominations (2): Best Picture, Director (King Vidor)

Dolphins Climbing The Hill

Talk about making a splash. The Miami Dolphins made a big move today, looking to become a major threat in the AFC East. They have sent five draft picks over to the Kansas City Chiefs in exchange for wide receiver Tyreek Hill. Hill then signs a new deal at four years worth $125 Million.

No do not adjust any settings, you did read that correctly, the Dolphins now have one of the best receivers in all of football in their lineup. He joins DeVante Parker and Allen Hurns on a solid receiving staff for Tua Tagovailoa to be able to throw to this season. This coming after the Dolphins had signed Ced Wilson on a three-year, $22.8 million deal and then bringing in tackle Terron Armstead on a five-year deal worth $75 million.

This is interesting from not only the Dolphin and Chiefs points of view, but from the Jets and Packers as well. New York and Green Bay were listed among a few teams that were in play for Hill, but he ended up in Miami.

First off is the obvious how this affects the Dolphins. It makes them contenders. Mike McDaniels club has had winning records the last two season, but they haven't made the playoffs since 2016 and haven't had a deep playoff run since 2000. Hill is the bigtime threat that the Dolphins have been missing on offense for a long time. The question remains though how well can Tua work with his new weapon? Can Tua be that true franchise QB that the Dolphins want and hope him to be? Time will tell there, but on paper at least, this could be a major step in the right direction with helping Tua's progression.

For the Chiefs, they have changes as well. Still have Travis Kelce to throw to and trying to replace Hill in the lineup will be JuJu Smith-Schuster, who was signed on a one year deal. Yes losing a guy of Hill's talent level is a big thing for the Chiefs, but they still have enough talent on this team to be a major player in what has now become a balanced and very tough AFC West.

Then there's the Jets, who are in a major need of offensive weapons. They had a golden opportunity to be able to grab, and then sign, one of the biggest names in all of football and make him the main focus of the air attack. It would have been golden, and such a huge confidence booster to a young up and coming QB like Zach Wilson. There are a couple of factors as to why the offer from the Jets didn't work out. New York has two picks in the top ten in the first round this year and they weren't willing to part with those picks in the offer. New York also has a lot of other holes it needs to fill other than just at receiver.

With Green Bay, it makes me wonder. They had a chance to lock up Devante Adams to a long term deal, didn't do it, and he's now with the Raiders. So what makes me think that it was going to be possible for Hill, who's for my money a better receiver than Adams, to go to Green Bay when they couldn't keep Adams? Yeah exactly.

Kansas City could still be in very good shape in an ultra tough AFC West, while Miami took a big step forward in becoming a threat in the AFC East

Pop Tops List

Coaching in the NBA is a tough job. Being able to get all that talent to play together as a solid unit is a real skill. When you think of the great coaches that have come into the NBA, there's a few names that come to mind right away. Red Auerbach, Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, Jerry Sloan, George Karl, Don Nelson. Just to name a few. There's now a new name at the top of the list for the best to ever do it. Gregg Popovich.

There's only ten men in the history of the NBA that have won over 1,000 games as a head coach. Doc Rivers (1,032 and counting), Rick Adelman (1,042), Larry Brown (1,098), Phil Jackson (1,155), George Karl (1,175), Pat Riley (1,210), Jerry Sloan (1,221), Lenny Wilkins (1,332), Don Nelson (1,335), and now the new king of the hill Gregg Popovich (1,336 and counting).

Pop has been around the NBA as a coach since 1988. He was hired as an assistant coach with the Spurs in 1988. He stayed on as an assistant until the end of the 1991-92 season. He then went on to be an assistant coach for the next two seasons with the Golden State Warriors. Pop then took some time away from basketball, before coming back to become the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs. Since the 1996-97 season, Popovich has been the head man for the Spurs, winning five NBA titles and was a three time coach of the year.

What's amazing about Pop and his record as coach is, that in now his 26th season as Spurs coach, he's only had three losing seasons. His first year 1996-97 he went 17-47 . Then the last two seasons have produced 32-39 and 33-39. Those three seasons were the only three in which Pop's Spurs teams have missed the playoffs. This year looks like it could be another one to join that losing record list sadly.

One of the great things that have always been talked about with Pop is how humble he is. He never likes taking praise for himself, he always likes to deflect it to his players or to somebody else within the organization. What's amazing about Pop is his ability to adapt. He's had great seasons in every year since the first, and then the last three season, this one included. A lot of it has to do with the Spurs in rebuild mode the past couple of years. With that, even though wins have been hard to come by. But Pop has been learning and adapting with this team and they are growing together. And he's been admired for how well he's been able to keep his teams together in the past after rough losses.

Congratulations Coach Pop for becoming the winningest bench boss in league history!

Baseball in Trouble

Things don't look too good for Major League Baseball right about now. Things are getting worse by the week for even having a return to baseball. Anybody with a pair of eyes could have seen this coming two years ago. The Owners and Players have been unable to come to an agreement on a new CBA, and now games have been cancelled through April 14th. This is a problem, a big problem.

There's so many issues that both sides are fighting over. Its going from competitive balance tax to the International Draft, to the players wanting to get paid for a full 162 game season and service time. There's so much more involved then this, but those have been some of the biggest sticking points, as of this writing.

The biggest problem is that neither side really seems to trust the other. Nobody really wants to give an inch, at least that's the way things seemed to be at the start of all of this. Everybody seems to be pointing fingers at the other side and nobody wants to get anything done. It feels like what we saw two years ago during the pandemic trying to get a season started. A lot of people, me included, said it back then that if they were fighting over money during the pandemic to try and get this figured out, that they were screwed now. That's exactly what happened. The players are also working to try to grow the game for future generations in these talks as well.

All of this is so frustrating from the point of view of the fans. Major League Baseball is cancelling games, all fighting over money and getting the system right. The fans are getting screwed over not being able to see games. Sure, it cost a lot of money to be able to go to games, but fans will still flock to the park for the sport. That's not happening because the owners and players can't get together on the same page and make this work and figure out labor peace.

I just want baseball back is that so much to ask for

Ridley In Hot Water

Gambling on sports. This is nothing new in society. It's been going on since the early 1900s. It started with horse racing and has now grown to cover all sports. You can bet on just about anything in the sports world and in many different ways. It one thing for the fans to do it. Its another when the athletes themselves do it. This applies to Calvin Ridley.

The Atlanta Falcons receiver has been suspended by the league for the 2022 season for placing bets on NFL games during the 2021 season. According to the story, Ridley placed $1,500 on bets during the season. Now its going to cost him his $11 million salary for next season.

According to sources, the league determined that Ridley placed multilegged parlay bets involving three, five and eight games that included the Falcons to win via his mobile device out of state, and learned of Ridley's betting activity through its relationships within the legal sports betting industry. This now makes five players who have been suspended over betting. The others were Alex Karras (1963), Paul Hornung (1963), Art Schlichter (1983) and Josh Shaw (2019).

Hey I'll give credit where it is due to the NFL for being able to take care of this quickly and they've done it in the past with betting on the game. In this regards the NFL is consistent with their stance on it and good for them in that regards, which is a very weird thing to say these days with the NFL and making some of its rulings as it has in the past.

That's a little different from how the NFL hands out discipline in other regards in the league. It been well documented how relaxed the league has been at times in punishing its players for doing things they shouldn't be doing. This they got right at least and have been consistent with. Some of the tweets that Ridley put out also make me wonder a little bit. He was seen making jokes in light of the suspension. Which is not a good sign for him and shows me that he isn't in the right frame of mind to be able to play and be the weapon for the Falcon that he was two seasons ago.

But it does leave one to wonder, is there a bigger issue at hand here with gambling? This we found out about, but what is going on that hasn't been discovered by the league, or us fans? There's more to this then meets the eye at the moment I'm sure. But this really makes us think and hopefully it can help get Ridley to figure things out so he can stay on the field.

Stadium Series Announced

Oh the Outdoor games. The NHL has been sending games outside since 2008 and have been a big hit ever since. It started out actually in 2003 with the Heritage Game between Edmonton and Montreal. Since 2008, New Years Day has seen the Winter Classic. Now we've added the Stadium Series. All of those events have been a big hit. Two more outdoor games have been announced, both for next season.

The Winter Classic with be played at Fenway Park for the 2nd time in history the the opponent for the Bruins to be announced. The Stadium Series will take place February 18th at Carter Finley Stadium as the Carolina Hurricanes play host to the Washington Capitals. Having Carolina host next season takes a team off the list that has never played in an outdoor game. With that, it leaves Arizona, Florida, Columbus and Seattle (brand new team) to have never played in an outdoor game since the concept was introduced by the NHL

The stadium series and winter classic has done a lot for the game, and putting on display some of the other markets in the league. Look what happened in Nashville late last month in the game between the Predators and Lighting. Over 20,000 fans made the trip from Tampa Bay to Nashville to support their Lightning. This has been amazing for the expansion of the game of hockey and putting it in different spots around the league.

The only thing that sticks out with me at least is that it seems like we see the same teams a lot. Pittsburgh, Washington, Boston, Rangers, Blackhawks. Nothing wrong with that, its getting exposure for the game. You do have other teams around the league and it would be even better exposure for the talent that this league has.

This concept has worked wonders for the NHL. Baseball had success with it on a larger stage last year with the Field of Dreams game. IF we even have baseball this year, but that's a whole different debate which we will get into at another time. Basketball should give it a go with a concept ideas for like a blacktop game. Or do what college basketball did, and play on something like an air craft carrier, which they did in 2011 and 2012. Sometimes, if done correctly, these games could be even bigger draws for the league, whichever ones can pull it off the right way